The Rose capacities are a set of statements outlining standards for educational achievement. Basically, students should be able to do this, that, the other, to be considered to have achieved an acceptable standard of education. They come from a 1989 Kentucky case, Rose v. Council for Better Education.
The Kansas Association of School Boards has a very complete primer on the Rose capacities.
The Rose standards have been cited in numerous Kansas court documents regarding school finance, and were added to Kansas law in 2014 in HB 2506, a bill that made many changes to Kansas education, including revoking teacher due process and creating a taxes-for-scholarships scheme, among others.
Here are those standards, as written into HB 2506.
"The bill revises KSA 2013 Supp. 72-1127 to eliminate a set of goals similar, but not identical, to the Rose capacities, and replace these goals with the exact language of the Rose capacities. The revised language states the Board must design subjects and areas of instruction to achieve the goal established by the Legislature of providing every child with at least the following capacities:
- Sufficient oral and written communication skills to enable students to function in a complex and rapidly changing civilization;
- Sufficient knowledge of economic, social, and political systems to enable the student to make informed choices;
- Sufficient understanding of governmental processes to enable the student to understand the issues that affect his or her community, state, and nation;
- Sufficient self-knowledge and knowledge of his or her mental and physical wellness;
- Sufficient grounding in the arts to enable each student to appreciate his or her cultural and historical heritage;
- Sufficient training or preparation for advanced training in either academic or vocational fields so as to enable each child to choose and pursue life work intelligently; and
- Sufficient levels of academic or vocational skills to enable public school students to compete favorably with their counterparts in surrounding states, in academics or in the job market."
